Lady of Steel

This movie starts with the basic revenge plot and adds a bit to it by throwing in politics and patriotism regarding the Jin invasion of China. It still doesn't take it very far from your basic Cheng Pei Pei feature. I think the writer got lazy with Hua Yueh's character by making him too much like the same in "Come Drink With Me". At HKMDB Jackie Chan is listed as the beggar kid. He would be sixteen. The kid looks too young. I doubt the listing is accurate. Nevertheless, the kid has charisma and makes the most of his few seconds in the movie. Hmm. Lee Wang Chun, whom I always call Mr. Smiley simply because he had the best smile in all of the Shaw Brothers movies, plays one of the villains. He also does a lot of fighting. Fighting, unlike smiling, is not one of his abilities. The sequences are choreographed quite well and he does pull them off, just barely. Cheng Pei Pei plays more than one character. It's all done with disguises. There is the standard female posing as a man, then she does the seductive lute player, and finally the old lady. It makes me wonder if Bruce Lee drew on this when he wore a few disguises in "Fist of Fury". The action is standard Shaw Brothers quality, this time with the great Leung Siu-Chung. You may know him as the father of Bruce Leung. My only quibble is that I think Cheng Pei Pei at this point should be showing much more power in her moves. Overall there is just nothing special to make this movie rise above average for the year and genre.